Tag Archives: Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase

Where Zulu and Azteca meet

recommendations rock. giving them out to fly poets and also receiving them from fresh wordsmiths. the following folks have told me i HAVE to feature John Murillo at Acentos- Raina León, Aracelis Girmay, Tara Betts and Martín Espada.

works for me… now bring your hotness!

Tuesday, November 22
@ 7:00pm
ACENTOS
The Bruckner Bar & Grill
1 Bruckner Boulevard
(Corner of 3rd Ave)
6 Train to 138th Street Station
Hosted by Oscar Bermeo
FREE! ($5 Suggested Donation)

Coming from Manhattan: Exit by the last car on the 6. Take the exit to your left, go up the stairs to your right to exit at Lincoln Avenue. Walk down Lincoln about 5 blocks to Bruckner Blvd, turn right on Bruckner past the bike shop, the Bruckner Bar & Grill is on the corner. For more directions, please call 718.665.2001 or click here for an e-map

JOHN MURILLO

John Murillo is an Afro-Chicano poet and playwright, originally from Los Angeles,
CA. He is a Cave Canem fellow and a former instructor with
DCWritersCorps. A coach of D.C.’s 2001 National Teen Poetry Slam Team,
John has performed his own work in venues from The Kaffa House to The
Kennedy Center. The 2002 and 2004 winner of the Larry Neal Award for Poetry, John is the author of the chapbook, Aluta, and the forthcoming collection of essays, A Poet in Havana, both from ZuluAzteca Press.

FOR MY NEIGHBORS WHO WALK WITH PURSES, LIPS, AND ASSES CLUTCHED TIGHT AS THEY HURRY PAST ME ON THEIR WAY TO STARBUCKS WITH A CELL PHONE IN ONE HAND AND A LEASH IN THE OTHER
--after Martín Espada

I have awakened to the rumble of stampeding bulldozers
flattening skulls of black Barbies under hoof.
I have choked on jackhammer dust in the shadows
of ten story skeletons and billboards that trumpet your coming.
I have watched potholes vanish and stop signs appear
next to shiny new health food markets.
I have witnessed tribes of drummers communing with God
pushed from parks like Navajos from their native ground.
I have seen the chiseled noses, Duke Ellington’s
mural, a sphinx on the wrong side of Giza.
I have zig zagged to work between the yapping
end of your leash on the street’s one side,
and the curbed furniture of an evicted family on the other.

May the Saints of Dilapidation cave condominiums
in on the flaxen strands splayed across pillows.
May the Gods of Rain Gutters deploy a sewer rat battalion
to gather and execute all poodles.
May the Spirits of Foodstamps sneak into your wallet
and turn all your Ben Franklins to Bushes.
May the Angels of Government Cheese curdle your latte
and send you hurling ass first toward porcelain.
May your sleep be disrupted by visits from Biggie, Pac,
and Big Pun singing Pavarotti and P-Diddy remixes.
May your furniture float. May your walls bleed graffiti.
May your house speak in Robeson’s voice. And may your
leather couches become housing projects for cockroaches
until two-headed albino alligators buy their way
into your living room.

© John Murillo

Acentos with Martín Espada


Acentos with Martín Espada
Originally uploaded by oscarb.

Time to process everything that went down last night.

The positives easily overweighed the negatives, by a landslide.
Yes, I had a bad day at work but I left that at the office.
Yes, there was rain but it actually chilled for a minute.
Yes, there was a drunken rabble rouser but he was actually digging the poetry.
Yes, it was hella loud & packed in the Bruckner but we survived.

I think that might be it. Otherwise, an insane night of poetry that left everybody (including ye olde cynic) stunned.

The Open Mic was A game ready and loaded with folks that have been supporting us and what we do. In no particular order: Kyra Wolfe, Kamila Aisha Moon, Rachel Griffiths, Raul Maldonado, Chris Brandt, Ed Garcia, Roger Bonair-Agard, Eliel Lucero, Jessica Torres, Rich Villar, Marty McConnell, Jai Chakrabarti, Lynne Procope, Lovella Rose, Matthew Charles Siegel, Maria Nieves, Christopher White, Liz Nieves, Jorge Monterossa, Carlos Andrés Gómez , Mara Jebsen, Oscar Bermeo, Dawn Saylor, C R Avery and Sandra Maria Estevez

This lineup looks All-Star in mad mad ways. The carpet micers did not come out in force and I was kinda expectin that anyway cuz they are more apt to show up for names that have high media value versus high literary value.

I started out the evening nervous. Nothing new there. By the third open micer, I was good to go. 25 people got on the Open in 75 minutes. Not too shabby. Shows how cool our folks are and there respect for the mic.

NEW SHIT! Yeah, people brought some and the crowd ate it up. Highlight: Jai with the new ‘sestina’ shit. Werd.

The feature. Damn, y’all. Martín is a pro. Punto. He went up there and rocked out. Part history lesson, motivational speech, rallying cry and all poesia, he was ON and the crowd looked on him with the proper rock star status he deserves.

The after jam was craziness cuz I finally was able to sit and talk with Martín. It is no big secret that the man has consistently left me awestruck and flabbergasted. I have met a lot of names over the last four years and have hung tough with most but Martín was always the enigma but last night we talked and laughed and the walls came crashing down.

“You know it’s cuz of your poem that I met my girl friend, right?” That was the level that we brought it to, where I could be straight up fan boy and still be cool. Then my whole world was changed with some words that Martín dropped my way. (Hate to pull the nebulous curtain but that stuff stays with me for now and, maybe, for always)

A little trip downtown and then we were in full jackass mode. I was acting quite the fool aka par for the course. Over some good eats I get a call from Bella and then I put her on the phone with Martín which was all kinds of funny as he was dropping the “hot choe.coh.latte voice” Hysterical!

Let me say this, I am exhausted. Beat. Done. Out for the count. But ready to raise the bar just a little higher.

Who’s next?!?!

October

“October/And the trees are stripped bare/Of all they wear”– U2

which makes it sound like a nice lazy month for the trees. unfortunately, i dont have such a restful itinerary.

dont get me wrong. this is exactly how i like my life. full of craziness & goodness which will help this month zip by so that november can finally get here.

you will hear more about these badboys as they appear, but for now, here all the cliff notes:

Wed, Oct 5 @ 7pm– The Bronx Council on the Arts’ 1st Wednesday Reading Series at the Downton Bronx Café guest hosted by Oscar Bermeo with featured poet Maria Negroni. An open mic session will follow Ms. Negroni’s reading.
For more info: http://bronxarts.org/genpublic.asp
*

Sat, Oct 8 @ 7pm and Sun, Oct 9 @ 3pm– EVE DESCENDING is a journey through the stories of women in the Bible. Each woman comes to life through poetry, dance, and song to speak where the scriptures have been silent.

Produced by Actors Stock Company NYC
Conceived and directed by Abena Koomson
Cast: Elana Bell, Keisa Ababio, Annmarie Benedict, Oscar Bermeo, Jessica Elizabeth, Deborah Goffe, Hanna Kivioja-Honeycutt, Sabrina Hayeem Ladani, Dara Lazar, Marty McConnell, Dana Shavonne Rainey, Melanie Stroh, Jane Titus, Rich Villar, Scott Williams, Stephanie Williams
For tickets: http://smarttix.com/show.aspx?showCode=EVE35
*

Thurs, Oct 13 @ 7pm– ACENTOS- The Uptown’s Best Open Mic and featured poet MARTÍN ESPADA
The Bruckner Bar & Grill
1 Bruckner Boulevard (Corner of 3rd Ave)
6 Train to 138th Street Station
Hosted by Oscar Bermeo
FREE! ($5 Suggested Donation)
For more information, www.louderarts.com/acentos/
*

Sat, Oct 15 @ 8pm– PARSE Book Release Party
Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery at Bleeker Street) $10 cover

Please join Friendlyfire Press (Chad Griffin and Scot Lee Williams) as they celebrate the release of PARSE – Alchemy, a new collaboration of visual artistry and poetry featuring poems by: Elana Bell, Oscar Bermeo, Jai Chakrabarti, Robert Bevan Dalton, Sabrina Hayeem-Ladani, Mara Jebsen, Raymond Daniel Medina, John J Trause & Rich Villar

With readings by the poets, musical collaboration from synonymUS and
Raj spinning tunes. For more information, www.bowerypoetry.com
*

Tues, Oct 25 @ 7pm– ACENTOS- The Uptown’s Best Open Mic and featured poet MILDRED RUIZ
The Bruckner Bar & Grill
1 Bruckner Boulevard (Corner of 3rd Ave)
6 Train to 138th Street Station
Hosted by Oscar Bermeo
FREE! ($5 Suggested Donation)
For more information, www.louderarts.com/acentos/

next acentos

the ultra talented ms sarah gambito will be rockin da house. y’all should really come and check this one out as i expect to be in a euphoric headspace. jus a hunch on my part ;-)

here are your details…

Tuesday, September 27
@ 7:00pm
ACENTOS
The Bruckner Bar & Grill
1 Bruckner Boulevard
(Corner of 3rd Ave)

Poetry in the Bronx lives and breathes at Acentos at the Bruckner Bar and Grill and on Tuesday, September 27, we set it off with the Uptown’s best open mic, along with featured poet Sarah Gambito.

ACENTOS @ The Bruckner Bar & Grill
6 Train to 138th Street Station
Hosted by Oscar Bermeo
FREE! ($5 Suggested Donation)

Coming from Manhattan: Exit by the last car on the 6. Take the exit to your left, go up the stairs to your right to exit at Lincoln Avenue. Walk down Lincoln about 5 blocks to Bruckner Blvd, turn right on Bruckner past the bike shop, the Bruckner Bar & Grill is on the corner. For more directions, please call 718.665.2001 or click here for an e-map

Sarah Gambito

Sarah Gambito is the author of Matadora (Alice James Books). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, The New Republic, Quarterly West, Fence and other journals. She holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The Creative Writing Program at Brown University. She teaches in the creative program at Rutgers University and is Executive Director of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization serving emerging Asian American poets

Immigration 2

My heart eats cake, Veronica cake that hates yoga
And lets me be crazy in the goldbar city.
So what if I don’t love you.
My problems don’t even happen to me

But to three girls grandstanding by the Potomac.
Respectively: your mother, her mother and her mother.
Three bitches in front of a trashcan.
Desirous of psychotherapy and a split lip courtesy of me.
Because I didn’t ask to be born here.
Didn’t ask to learn the language.
And don’t know how to save you.

Am I frightening you?
I’m frightening you.

Good and good and good and good.

© Sarah Gamibito

Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase Celebrates Two Years

[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

Bronx, NY: The Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase
celebrates its two year anniversary on Tuesday, March
22nd with both a select group of regular readers on
the open mic and musical guests Maya Azucena, Raymond
Daniel Medina with synonyumUS, and the debut of the
Mona Passage, ushering in a new year of
poetic excellence.

Acentos takes place at 7:30 p.m. every 2nd and 4th
Tuesday of the month at Blue Ox Bar, located at the
corner of 3rd Ave and 138th St, one block from the 6
train 138th Street station in the Bronx, NYC.
Admission is free, with a $5 suggested donation. In
the South Bronx’s burgeoning art scene, Acentos has
become the premiere poetry venue. “Acentos always has
a headliner but the meat of the evening was the
open-mic session, where more than a score of poets
read and performed before a friendly, encouraging
crowd,” reports New York Times journalist, Seth Kugel
(Arts section, Jan 30, 2004).

In addition to providing an open space for poets of
all backgrounds and styles to share their work,
Acentos has brought a diverse group of nationally
renowned writers to the heart of the Bronx. In its
first two years, Acentos featured Latino poets with
the aim of giving Latino poetry a renewed spotlight
outside the venues of downtown New York, including
Miguel Algarin, Louis Reyes Rivera, Willie Perdomo,
Mahina Movement, NYFA Fellow Edward Garcia, authors
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez and Bonafide Rojas, Cave Canem
Fellows Raina Leon and Aracelis Girmay, Jack Agueros,
Dr. Nancy Mercado, Jose Angel Figueroa, National Teen
Poetry Champion Jorge Monterossa, and Smithsonian
Institution Latina/o Studies Fellow Reina Prado.

“They were kicking something fierce, reminding me of
back in the 70s, when we would find any place we could
and turn it into THE jam for poetry. These youngsters
are doing the same exact thing today,” explains Louis
Reyes Rivera.

A major player in the Bronx cultural renaissance,
Acentos was founded in March 2003 as a showcase for
Latino voices. In two years, it has become a benchmark
for all Bronx poetry and a staple of the New York
poetry scene. Acentos is run by a group of dedicated
young poets: Oscar Bermeo, Jessica Torres, Fish Vargas
and Rich Villar, and thrives with the support of the
Bronx Council on the Arts’ Bronx Writers’ Center and
the louderARTS Project.

“While in New York, I was fortunate enough to read in
poetry venues whose reputation preceded them and I was
received warmly. However, I found that the highlight
of my New York experience was in the Bronx, at a place
I had never heard of before; Acentos. It is beautiful
to be accepted by strangers, but it is still more
beautiful to be accepted by your family,” comments
Teen Poetry Slam Champion, Jorge Monterossa.

For more information on Acentos, please visit
www.louderARTS.com/acentos.

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